julie leth

Catherine Marsal has had an amazing life in cycling. The Frenchwoman was an Olympian at 17 in 1988, the first ever women’s Junior Road World Champion in 1987, and the Elite World Champion in her first year as an elite in 1990; struggling for a few years, then becoming World Champion in the Hour Record in 1995; winning the Giro and the Tour de l’Aude Grand Tours; working as a Directeur Sportif before retiring from cycling, and then coming back to the sport as women’s road coach for the Danish Cycling Federation.

Catherine Marsal: We are on a cloud! Things have been going very well since the beginning of the season, the girls are improving so well, every race sees a new adventure, and I’m looking forward to every weekend, to see what’s going to happen next.

PWC: Did you expect that the Danes would do so well this year?

Marsal: I was expecting – and hoping – that Amalie Dideriksen could express herself, and show her rainbow jersey. Amalie is not World Champion by chance, she’s a rider who has being working so hard and getting results – maybe not always seen by the media, but she’s been progressing, and the World Champion’s title is something she had in the corner of her mind. It was very important for her to win a WorldTour race in that jersey, and confirm to the world that she is the World Champion.

PWC: She won Drenthe in such beautiful style – Boels-Dolmans rode the race so well, and she got into a break with some really clever riders, and just trusted herself.

Marsal: She has such an instinct for racing, that is unbelievable for her age. She knows how to handle a very tricky situation like that, and she has a very strong capacity to handle the pressure, and what we expect from her. That will give her so much strength for the future.Continue reading →

Catherine Marsal is a legend of women’s cycling and French cycling in general. Racing her first Olympic Games at 17, becoming the first ever Junior Road World Champion, and then the first woman to ever be Junior and Elite Road World Champion; winning World Championships golds as a Junior on the track in the Individual Pursuit and in the Team Time Trial; winning the Giro d’Italia, and another of the (now lost) Grand Tours, the Tour de l’Aude twice; and becoming the World Hour Record champion… and much more.

After she finished racing, she was a Directeur Sportif for Team SATS, and then after a break from cycling to do a degree and work in business, three years ago she took the job of women’s coach/manager for the Danish National Team – which has, of course, included being team coach when Amalie Dideriksen became the 2016 Road World Champion.

We talked about her amazing life in cycling, the ups and downs, racing with/against Jeannie Longo, and of course, the incredible results of the Danish women, and a lot more. Marsal is fantastic to talk to, and was super-patient despite technical issues in the call, and if you’re at all interested in how cycling’s change since the 1990s, the experience of young riders who become World Champions, or Danish cycling, please do listen!

Update! If you prefer to read interviews, I’ve written up part of it, over here.

We haven’t had a flat Road World Championships since Copenhagen in 2011, so the sprinters were rubbing their hands with glee. We’d seen the Team Time Trials and the Individual Time Trials on the course, but how would the peloton take it? Find out with videos, photos, links and results from the Junior and Elite women’s road races – so exciting, and some amazing moments!

I’ll edit in more as I see it – if you have media you loved, please do let me know in the comments or on twitter.

If you don’t want to watch the whole thing, click here for the final 1.5km, for a textbook sprint finish – high-speed, perfect lead-out. Keep going until the last group crosses the line, because that was a really cute moment – but whatever you do, make sure you keep watching until the slo-mo overhead, it’s perfect racing. I adore the final lead-out rider, Chiara Consonni, cheering for Elisa Balsamo’s win before she’s even crossed the line – so confident! And I really, really love the Italians singing along with the anthem:

Vale Scandolara is a fan favourite for her exciting racing, and for her friendly and positive personality, and given she’s such a sunny person, it only seems right that she’s escaped the European winter to race in the Australian Summer of Cycling. She told me how Italian bike clothing company Alé enabled her to set up her own team for the Bay Crits, what it felt like being in that final break in the 2015 Road World Championships and to nearly make it, and about her plans for 2016, with her new team Cylance. This includes a bonus extra chat with Vale’s Bay Crits team-mate Julie Leth, who’s back from injury, finally, and just became officially Australian, having won the Aussie Madison Championships with Nettie Edmondson.

Hi everybody! This week Sarah and I recap the highlights and tragedies of the Omloop. We also ambitiously try to (kinda) follow Le Samyn semi-live while we record. We talk about the Track World Championships, including stellar performances from Kelly Druyts, Amy Cure, Sarah Hammer and more. We talk about Richmond worlds and a whole bunch of awards of the film type and other types as well! We get into a weird conversation about US state capitals and Sarah baselessly accuses Dan of lying, so of course Dan responds by accusing Sarah of lying about lying. See if you can spot who is telling the truth. Oh, and for those wondering, the Capital of Delaware is Dover, although Dan claims partial credit because there is actually a Wilmington in Delaware.(1:12:32 MIN / 69.64 MB)